and now, from washington's leading news station, this is news 4 at 6:00. the political mad dash. president obama and mitt romney race across the country today looking for last-minute votes. good evening, everybody, i'm jim handly. jim rosenfield is on assignment tonight. it is the final sprint to election day, and the latest nbc news/wall street journal poll confirms a nearly deadlocked rate. 48-47%. candidates are crisscrossing the country tonight. brian mooar follows them as they make their final case to voters.

>> just two more days. >> reporter: two days before voters go to the polls. republican nominee mitt romney and president obama were fighting for votes in the battleground states. >> florida, in two days, you've got a choice to make. >> reporter: the final nbc news poll before the election shows the candidates are in a dead heat. president obama with a 48% to 47% lead. but the president's handling of hurricane sandy has boosted his approval numbers. >> you don't know what crisis the next president is going to confirm. >> reporter: in ohio, governor romney is six points down. that's forcing him to look to other states like iowa. >> we can do better, a better america, a stronger america is ahead. >> reporter: a day after governor romney stumped in new hampshire -- >> our president, barack obama! >> reporter: the president was there with former president bill clinton.

it's a race so tight even four electoral votes could be the margin of victory. the nbc poll shows this is a battle of the sexes. president obama has an eight-point lead with women, governor romney, a seven-point lead with men. on capitol hill, brian mooar, news 4. >> both candidates are spending a lot of time in the battleground state of virginia. today tag and ben romney campaigned in northern virginia. they made stops in fairfax, sterling, and stanton holding rallies for supporters and volunte volunteers. romney will be at lynchburg tomorrow and george mason later that day. president obama was in new hampshire, florida today, ohio and colorado tonight, but his surrogates spent the day in the commonwealth. madeline albright canvassed with

campaign volunteers. that close to home today, police are searching for a person of interest after a robbery at a obama campaign office down in florida. fort meyers place say an employee found the front door of the office smashed this morning. the only thing reported missing is an envelope with an undisclosed amount of money inside of it. no computers stolen, no vandalism was reported. surveillance cameras captured a man on video in that area overnight. be sure to stay with news 4 for complete coverage of the election. you can also stay up to date on our website, nbcwashington.com. well, another disappointing day for redskins fans at fedex field. coach mike shanahan called this game a must win earlier this week. dan hellie is live at fedex field tonight. now how the skins wanted to head into their bye week. >> reporter: not at all. not only did shanahan call it a

must win, but the carolina panthers felt disrespected because they were the homecoming opponent. the panthers did come in at 1-6, but they rarely beat the redskins in every facet of the game, winning for the first time in five games. this is the redskins worst loss of the season as they drop to 3-6 going into the bye week. rg3 and the redskins in throw-back uniforms. these two have been compared a lot. picking it up in the first quarter, williams finding room down the sideline. now the referee blew the whistle. several redskins players told me that they stopped playing. the panthers up 7-3. newton trying to add to carolina's lead, throws a strike to steve smith. that's a 19-yard touchdown. the panthers take a 14-3 lead. under 20 seconds to go in the game. the redskins down 21-13. a touchdown and two-point conversion ties it. rg3 over to brandon banks, and i

don't think this is the way that they drew it up. ends up losing nine yards on the play, and that is all she wrote for the redskins. you can see robert griffin iii said what on earth is going on? 21-13, the final. the skins fall to 3-6 going into the bye week. afterwards, mike shanahan, none too pleased with his team. >> obviously, very disappointed, you know, must-win games give you a chance to play for a playoff spot at the midway point when you're 3-5. got to be a must win, obviously, to get in the hunt. when you lose a game like that, now you're playing to see who, obviously, is going to be on your football team for years to come. now we get a chance to evaluate players and see where we're at. obviously, we're not out of it statistically, but now we find out what type of character we got and how guys keep on fighting through the rest of the season. >> reporter: interesting

comments from an obviously disheartened head coach mike hannahan, evaluating players at this point in the season isn't something you normally hear, so the skins have two weeks to let this loss marinate. see you in a few minutes, jim in. >> we'll be talking about and thank you, dan, see you in a bit. we saw the sun today for the first time in a long time, but it did a disappearing act an hour earlier on us. chuck bell is in the weather center with the first look at your forecast. hey, chuck. >> good evening to you. it's so hard that first couple of days to see the sun go down 5:04 this afternoon. it will be down before 5:00 before this week is through. and it will stay this way for the rest of the year. currently, mostly clear sky out there. it's cool, but not cold yet, but it's going to be real cold around here by early tomorrow morning. freeze warnings for montgomery county, frederick county, maryland, all the highlighted

counties there. freeze warning for tonight. does not include the district or fairfax, but nonetheless, it will be a cold start. there's your sunday evening planner, get ready to bundle things up. temperatures in the 30s before midnight. talk about the coastal storm midweek coming up. >> thank you, chuck. search teams with dogs combed through a wooded area today in fairfax county. they are looking for a 54-year-old with alzheimer's who hasn't been seen since october 24th. his family says he's wandered off before, but never for this long. and they are very concerned. >> if anyone knows anything, we ask that you please, please call the cops. just keep an eye out. keep an eye out. >> police tell us these types of cases often end with the person being found, but this search effort was interrupted when hurricane sandy moved through our area. the cold is becoming a major issue tonight for all those still without power from

hurricane sandy. there are shelters open in new york city and the suburbs. the city is also handing out thousands of blankets to people who refuse to leave their homes, but mayor michael bloomberg says they could need up to 40,000 shelter spots for people. the gas shortage could continue for days. northern new jersey is on day two of a rationing program. only drivers with license plates ending in even numbers could fill up today. >> probably keep people sitting out there for three hours at a time. i don't think it's going to hurt anything too bad. >> and, of course, today was going to be the day of the new york city marathon before city leaders called off the race on friday. thousands of runners ran anyway inside central park. others went to staten island handing out supplies. many were still wearing race numbers. word tonight from amtrak that service will be limited tomorrow between washington, new york, and boston.

amtrak is telling passengers to make reservations by telephone or online to avoid sold-out trains and long lines at ticket counters. crews are still repairing damage caused by the storm last week. a family trip turns into a tragedy after a toddler falls more than a dozen feet to his death at the zoo. and the big walk in d.c. today to raise awareness for the number one cancer killer in the united states.

zoo officials in pittsburgh are promising a full investigation after a tragedy there this morning a. 3-year-old boy died after falling 13 feet into an exhibit of endangered wild dogs. the animals attacked him before keepers could get all of them away. the zoo says it's not sure if the boy died from the fall or attack. there were 11 dogs in the exhibit, one of them had to be killed. few details tonight in a deadly shooting overnight in southeast d.c. someone called police around 2:15 this morning to report gunshots here. police found a 19-year-old man dead in a parking lot behind an apartment lot later this morning, investigators were focused on a wooded lot. no arrests have been made. lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the united states. today thousands today walked for a cure. it was a perfect fall day out

there for a walk, first day with sun in a long time. chuck bell's back with your

thousands laced up their shoes and took a walk in the brisk air today for the annual breathe deep d.c. walk this morning. the event is organized by the longevity foundation, which raises money and awareness for lung cancer. there is doug kammerer on hand this morning as the emcee for the event. he spoke to a lung cancer survivor about the importance of lung cancer awareness. >> a year after i was diagnosed, i was looking for something in d.c. to do, and there was no walk in d.c., no black tie event, nothing. some friends and i got together and we created breathe deep, d.c., and it was much bigger than i ever would have imagined, because it touched a nerve. there's a real need for. >> organizers say more than

2,000 people came out for today's 5k and more than $250,000 was raised for lung cancer research. chuck, was doug wearing a bomber jacket? you needed to bundle up. >> it was a cold start this morning. at least the wind finally died down. yesterday was ferociously windy. we appreciated the fact the winds died down. boy, the light winds and the clearing skies last night allowed for a real cold start this morning. you saw doug in his jacket with his gloves on. you're going to need gloves again tomorrow morning and the next couple of mornings as well. skies remain mostly clear now across the washington area. that's good news as we scan around the area now. the washington monument in a clear but chilly night. for the record today, 53 our high temperature this afternoon after a 38 degree start this morning. 38 at reagan national this morning was our coldest start since it was 29 degrees back on

march the 6th, so it has been a long time since we've had a morning that cold. won't be that long again, temperatures back in the 30s tomorrow morning and tuesday morning, it looks like. for now, though, not so bad. a clear sky, 48 degrees. dry, dry air. dew points in the mid and upper 20s, meaning the temperatures are going to plummet. 41 winchester, 39 degrees out in western maryland. your planner for tomorrow, another bundler first thing in the morning. mid to upper 30s around town, but there will be plenty of spots back down below freezing, but plenty of sunshine on your monday. temperatures back up in the upper 30s and low 50s. montgomery county, frederick county and maryland and out towards the blue ridge across parts of northern virginia. that will be the end of the growing season in those locations. nothing showing up on doppler for now. couple of light showers here in eastern ohio. they will not be bothering us,

the air mass is too, too dry to worry about it. here's the next system, cold air and energy in the atmosphere on a very strong polar jet diving down through the upper midwest, snowing in the dakotas and western minnesota. that energy is aiming for the gulf coast, where it will meet up with moisture and that will be the coastal storm by the middle of the week for us. in the short term, more cold nights ahead, tonight and monday night, chilly indeed. plenty of sunshine tomorrow. the good weather lasts through tuesday, but as we get towards tuesday afternoon, here we are 9:00 tuesday morning, clear sky overhead. we'll start with sunshine, but the gathering coastal storm aiming for the coast of north florida will make the turn and come up the coast. impacts around here, strongest impacts will be wednesday night into thursday. only low to moderate impacts on wednesday during the day, but by wednesday night, an awful lot of wind and rain around here and an opportunity for some snow showers out across parts of the blue ridge and out to the west.

be on the lookout for that. as far as our seven-day forecast is concerned, it is going to be chilly the next couple of mornings, then we'll be keeping our eyes closely watching the wednesday/thursday time frame. for now, most of us looks like a very cold, windy rain event, but snow flakes may not be far off by thursday. we will be watching it closely. >> you got our attention. thank you, chuck. coming up next in sports, the redskins looking for a win be

hey, count those two touchdowns that got called back and we win. >> we're going to be positive about this. >> that's our version of fantasy football. >> it swings so much, playoff push, the loss and we're starting to talk about next year. mike shanahan called it a must win facing a one-win team at home before the bye week. skins and panthers, turns out to be a oneway battle at fedex fie field. a modern throwback look attributing the 1937 championship season. panthers start off playing like champions, first quarter, cam newton's crew down 3-0. handoff to deangelo williams, and you heard it there, the ref blew his whistle, it should have

stopped the play, still rule add 38-yard score. same score, second quarter, redskins going for it on fourth and goal. 2 for 2 on the fourth down, but stopped short, rg3 is here. it's panthers defense gets him no points and the skins turn it over on downs. ensuing carolina drive. newton looking long. for steve smith, in the end zone, and he makes a catch over josh wilson. smith's first t.d. of the year. i don't know what that is. panthers take a 14-3 lead. he's been waiting all year, apparently, to do it. to the fourth, more from carolina, hooks up with armonte edwards that gets the panthers all the way down the redskins' 9 yard line. and three plays later, newton will take it in himself. busts in, touchdown. gets up and watch this, blows a kiss to the fans. very classy. redskins add a late royster

t.d., but carolina wins 21-13 as the skins head into the bye with a 3-6 record. with more, we welcome in dan hellie live from fedex field. dan, a lot of headlines reading newton got the better of griffin. >> reporter: his team came out the winner in this game. this is not where the redskins thought they'd be going into the bye week. 3-6. mike shanahan said in his press conference after the game that the rest of the season is an evaluation process. not something you normally hear from a head coach with seven games left in the regular season. perhaps, perhaps, it was a wake-up call for some of his players. >> we got to figure out how to win, one, right now. got to get one to put something together and give ourselves a chance. this is the third game we lost in a row or something like that. you're not going to go too far doing that. >> just haven't played well

enough, so question of the mentality and things like that, i'm not going to do that yet. i think we got the leadership and the young guys are hungry enough that we're not going to lose our way. we're going to keep fighting and i think we'll pull some games out. >> got to execute. that should be our word to focus on for the bye week, come back and everybody want to execute. offense, defense, special teams, make plays and execute. >> bad feeling when you're walking off the field and know you didn't go out and execute like you wanted to. that's what we talked about. it's all about execution. people are going to criticize, the coaches, the players, say a drastic change needs to be made, but i don't feel that way, i think it's on us, the players, to go out and play. regardless offense, defense, special teams, we're the ones out there playing. we got to make things happen. >> the redskins, by the way, carol, they are the most penalized team in the nfl this year. and the road in terms of opponents certainly doesn't get any easier than the panthers.

next up, philly, dallas, the giants, and the baltimore ravens. i guess one thing could be positive if you're a mitt romney fan is the fact that the redskins win could spell good things for mitt romney. >> that's right, they call it the redskins rule, right? the most bizarre stat in sports. the redskins win, the incumbents win. if the redskins lose, the incumbent loses. thank you, dan, for that report. can you believe that? it's been going on since 1940. 17 of 18, that stat has held true. 17 of 18. >> got two days until then, and a long two weeks. >> wait for us to get into the political scene. baltimore ravens are undefeated after the bye week. they needed a rally, though, today in cleveland to keep that streak alive. it's an afc north showdown between the ravens and the browns. brandon weeden's a rookie, maybe he didn't know cleveland lost nine straight to ray rice's ravens. rice ready to rumble.

8-yard touchdown run. 98 yards on the day. ravens up. browns take a lead late in the fourth. joe flacco. he hits torrey smith, a spin, tags his defender. gets in on a foot race and the 19-yard touchdown pass puts the ravens ahead. they come back to win it 25-15, the final. baltimore improves to 6-2 on the season. >> all right, carol, thanks. see you later. that's going to do it for us. "nightly news" is heading your way next. we'll be back at 11:00. have a great

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